“CAO was commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation to develop a training blueprint for Waddesdon Manor. Lucy and her team delivered exceptional work, combining thorough research, consultation, and practical solutions. They quickly understood the complexities of both the Foundation and Waddesdon Manor, building trust with staff and delivering a blueprint that met the Trustees' vision. Their expertise and flexibility were key to the project's success. As a result, we are now implementing a training program that aligns with both the Manor's unique vision and our needs. We would highly recommend CAO.”

“CAO is a cut above other consultants we've worked with. Post-COVID, our management team has improved in people management and innovation, thanks to CAO. Our staff is better prepared for change, leading others more effectively, and our innovation cycles are now shorter, helping us stay ahead of the curve. The impact is clear in both our financial results and customer engagement. From start to finish, working with CAO was a pleasure—knowledgeable, passionate, and professional. I'd highly recommend them for any challenge.”

“CAO was commissioned by Manchester Literature Festival to create a five-year strategic plan. They approached the project with professionalism, innovation, and energy, engaging staff, the board, and stakeholders throughout. CAO demonstrated insight, sector knowledge, and sensitivity to our needs. The resulting strategy outlines the key values shaping our future activities and has greatly contributed to achieving our goals.”

“We engaged CAO to provide a short piece of consultancy about digital knowledge within the heritage sector. They worked to our very challenging timetable, and delivered to schedule and budget. Despite the limitations of the timescale, and working at the worst time of year to survey heritage professionals, CAO explored the issues well, used a variety of techniques to gain insight from the heritage community and provided a detailed, useful and very well presented final report. CAO have been a delight to work with, challenging us as well as themselves to ensure best results. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others looking for informed insight into the cultural and heritage sector.”

“CAO were great advisers and collaborators. They were personable and engaged closely with staff, volunteers, trustees and stakeholders. They took time to understand us and worked closely with us, developing ideas iteratively, which led to excellent outcomes including highly appropriate recommendations. They kept us regularly updated and were easy to work with.”

“East Sussex County Council appointed CAO to create a robust governance structure for our cultural leadership group and develop a tool for prioritising cultural investment.  From the outset they demonstrated genuine interest in our journey. They were patient and perceptive listeners and knew how to challenge us whilst respecting our red lines, nothing was too much trouble for them and they brought a broad variety of knowledge and experience to the table which really enriched our understanding of what we were trying to achieve. They were also good humoured and kind.  The result is that we have achieved what we set out to do and really enjoyed the process.”

“We appointed CAO to undertake a review of our ways of working as a curatorial team and provide recommendations accordingly. We found Lucy Shaw and her colleagues at CAO terrifically professional, creative and thoughtful. They worked with senior managers in the IWM team to devise a programme that included a conference and a series of workshops, which gave all curators a chance to contribute and thereby generated confidence in the outcomes of the review.”

“CAO brought a uniquely comprehensive approach to projects in Walsall, grounded in the team's significant experience across a broad scope of the heritage and culture sector. This has allowed us on multiple projects to gain diverse insights, maximising the role of external capacity in moving projects forward.”

“We commissioned CAO to work with us at Cyfarthfa Castle and Park; both heritage assets of enormous potential but in substantial jeopardy. Their experienced team developed a proposal in support of our bid to become the Anchor Site of the proposed National Contemporary Art Gallery for Wales. They consulted local people, drew on international examples and analysed the site, it’s history and collection to develop an exciting and ambitious proposal designed to appeal to local, national and international audiences. The team considered how the building would operate, how programming be delivered and were pragmatic in preparing options at different scales and costs. The team were enthusiastic, energetic, forward thinking and responsive to our suggestions; we thoroughly enjoyed working with them. The final inspiring vision celebrated Art at Cyfarthfa and has been a powerful tool towards our future success.”

"Culture Sheffield commissioned CAO to deliver a series of workshops to strengthen leadership skills among emerging and mid-career cultural leaders in the city. They have been an exceptional partner, attentive, thoroughly prepared, and consistently delivering high-quality facilitation grounded in deep experience. Participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive, prompting us to extend the programme for a further 12 months. We look forward to continuing our partnership with CAO as a contributor to the ambitions of Sheffield’s Culture Strategy." 

“The Exhibitions Group selected CAO to conduct research into trends in exhibitions because we were impressed by their team and their fresh approach. Throughout the research project, the CAO team were indeed a pleasure to engage with and they brought additional expertise through their associates.  Stakeholder engagement through a series of round tables was especially positive supporting both the research and the reputation of the project. 

The CAO team is efficient and organised, managing time and expectations rigorously, which enabled us as client to focus on the bigger picture rather than process. They listened, responded and were open about any challenges to the research agreeing ways forward with us at every stage.

CAO's research has yielded new insights which will be of wider benefit to the sector. Their enquiry has prompted The Exhibitions Group to tweak our strategy and the findings will inform the work of The Exhibitions Group going forward. The case studies developed are particularly impressive in their detail and thoughtfulness. In summary, CAO have conducted research that met a wide and challenging brief and has resulted in recommendations that will benefit the sector significantly. “